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PDF Presentation Software Impressive

Martin Brinkmann — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:57:09 +0000

PDF documents are usually not used in presentations. It does happen often however that presentations are shared as pdf documents instead of the original document format which is usually created by Microsoft PowerPoint document.

Impressive is a presentation software that provides the same presentation techniques that are known from PowerPoint with the difference that it can apply those to pdf documents and images. It offers links, overviews, page transition effects, highlights, spotlights and a sheet by sheet mode that can be controlled manually with the mouse buttons or automatically.

The portable software will extract a number of different files to the local computer system. Presentations can be started by dragging and dropping files onto the impressive.exe file in the program folder or by launching the tool from the command line. The basic command would be impressive file.pdf. More than a dozen command line parameters are available that can be used to control most aspects of the presentation software. Parameters exist to start the presentation in a custom resolution, a specific display ratio, to automatically flip pages after x seconds or to display a progress bar.

The primary application for this software is presentations. It can however be useful as a pdf reader as well especially for users who prefer to read page by page without scrolling.

There has not been any progress in development for the last six months which could mean that the project was temporarily or permanently halted. It does however work fine in its current stage but could use some usability additions like a graphical user interface to make things easier for the user.

Open XML Docx Viewer

Martin Brinkmann — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:32:13 +0000

The introduction of the new Microsoft Office XML formats (docx, pptx, xlsx) have caused some confusion by users of previous Microsoft Office releases as their versions were not able to open the new document formats by default. The same was true for users without access to any version of Microsoft Office 2007. Several ways to open docx files have emerged pretty soon after the initial release; One of them is the Open XML Viewer which is basically offered as a plugin for the web browser Firefox.

The document viewer only supports the new docx file format at this point but as this is the most commonly encountered format it should suffice for the moment. The web browser add-on is available for both the Windows and Linux operating system and supplied as a xpi file which can be loaded and installed easily. Another version for the command line of both operating systems is provided as well.

The web browser plugin works by simply dragging and dropping docx documents into a Firefox tab or window. The add-on will automatically process the document and display it in the web browser. There is currently no direct way to open docx files that are linked from websites but it is possible to associate the Firefox web browser with the docx format in the operating system to either open the documents automatically or on right-click and selection with it.

The next installment of the Open XML Document Viewer is slated for a April 2009 release which will add support for the Opera and Internet Explorer web browser, server side support, document themes and drawing shapes.

Document Presentation For Websites

Martin Brinkmann — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:18:39 +0000

There is not really a standard out there for document presentation on websites. Many webmasters rely on widgets and scripts to display documents on their websites making it sometimes confusing for their visitors who have to deal with documents that they can only download and various interfaces for document presentations on the website itself.

Doc Shots tries to bring in more control to the webmaster by allowing them to present documents on their websites easily. The visitor is able to view a selected document right on the website in an overlay with basic controls, such as downloading, printing, searching and zooming. It feels like a document viewer on the web and resembles desktop document viewers enough to make it easy for visitors to use it.

Webmasters have to be registered users of the service before they can configure Doc Shots for their website. Registration is free on the other hand and not problematic or time consuming at all. The configuration of the document presentation script can be customized by setting the width and height of the overlay window. Other options include the display of related items and document storing policies.

Webmasters receive a JavaScript code in the end that they have to embed in the source code of their website to make use of the document presentation engine. The script will automatically recognize popular document formats such as .doc, .pdf, .ppt, .xls. Hoovering over document links or clicking on the documents will open the document presentation overlay on the same website.

The first viewer will experience a small delay while opening the document as the conversion is initiated at that time. It is therefor a good idea to be the first viewer so that regular visitors do not experience the delay. Visitors can still right-click the document and save it to their computer system directly.

Update: The service does not seem to be available any longer.

Set Transparent Color for Images in Microsoft Word

Martin Brinkmann — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:12:13 +0000

I once had to add a image into a Word document that had a black background which looked awful when printing the document. Microsoft Word comes with a few basic possibilities to alter graphics that are added which includes changing colors of the image and defining a transparent color for the image.

It was an easy task to set the black background color to transparent which had the result that the image was showing without the black background. Here is how I did that in Microsoft Word 2007. After adding the image to Microsoft Word you left-click the icon to bring up the graphics menu.

Click on Recolor in the left menu that is called Adjust and select Set Transparent Color there. Now click on the color that you want to make transparent. There are some limitations though. You can only make one color transparent which means that if your image has different similar looking colors as the background this won’t bring the desired results.

You could use an image editor like GIMP or Paint.net to change the color of the background image to one solid one or make it match the background color of the document.

Add books and documents to your iPod

Martin Brinkmann — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 14:08:11 +0000

There is no comfortable function in iTunes to transfer large e-books or documents to or from the iPod. Everytime major functions are missing a freeware author steps in and offers a freeware program that would add the functionality. Ipodlibrary is the freeware program that steps in this time. You can use it to add and remove all sorts of text documents to and from your iPod.

Ipodlibrary is able to import txt, doc, lit and html documents avoiding the 1000 notes limit of the iPod (by setting some to inactive which means that they do not count against the limit). It keeps track of the position that you are currently at which makes it easy to continue where you left of.